Welcome

 

This is the course website for the Fall 2018 course in Population & Community Ecology (ECOL 4000/6000) taught in the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia.

Course Description

Population and community ecology are active fields of research with important applications for management and conservation. This course links conceptual issues and basic models with data and field approaches to understanding population dynamics in time and space. The first third of the course focuses on the birth, death, and movement of organisms, with particular reference to the population dynamics of single-species; the middle third of the course focuses on interactions among species, including competition and predation; the final third of the course focuses on the causes and consequences of diversity (the co-occurrence of multiple species).

Instructors

Prof. John Drake

John received his PhD in biology from the University of Notre Dame. His research seeks to understand the dynamics of biological populations and epidemics, focusing on how to bring experimental or observational data together with mathematical theory. Practical applications of this work include drakedecision support for managing invasive species, mapping the spread of infectious diseases, and forecasting disease emergence. Current projects focus on Ebola virus in West Africa, spread of White-nose Syndrome in bats, and the development of a new theory for early warning systems of emerging infectious diseases. Before coming to UGA in 2006, John was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California from. In 2012, he was Leverhulme Visiting Professor in the Department of Zoology at Oxford University. More about his lab’s work is available here.

parkProf. Andrew Park

Andrew received his PhD in biology from the University of Cambridge. His area of expertise is emerging pathogens with a focus on the evolution of the host-parasite interaction. Current projects focus on the evolution of parasite generalism, White Pox disease in Elkhorn coral, and the evolution of drug resistance. Before coming to UGA in 2008, Andrew held positions in Canada, Switzerland, France, and Australia. More about his lab’s work is available here.